HC to set up Lok Adalats, mediation centres for prompt justice

Chandigarh, Nov 4 (UNI) Punjab and Haryana High Court would set up three new Lok Adalats and 20 mediation centres in the two states to ensure accessible, affordable and speedy justice for the common man.

The HC Legal Services Committee president Justice K S Grewal and HC Mediation and Reconciliation Committee president Justice Mahesh Grover told mediapersons here that while the Lok Adalats would hear the civil and petty criminal cases, the mediation centres would deal with cases pertaining to family and marital discords.

Justice Grewal said that the High Court at present has only one Lok Adalat which was not enough to deal with the numerous cases.

Thus it was decided to set up three more Lok Adalats which would be inaugurated on November 8 by Justice Satyavrat Sinha.

Each Lok Adalat would have a two-member division bench consisting of a former judge each of the HC and Sessions Court, he added.

The Lok Adalats would commence regular functioning from November 10 and would take up accidental compensation cases related to insurance companies from Monday to Thursday while on Friday and Saturday, cases related to roadways would be heard. Initially, 2800 cases would be taken up, Justice Grewal said.

Regarding the Mediation Centres, Justice Grover said Justice Sinha would inaugurate 10 such centres each in Punjab and Haryana on November 8.

''These centres would aim at solving the family and marital discord related problems with mediation and compromise and we would endeavour to open such centres at the sub-divisional and village level so that the rising number of cases pertaining to family feuds could be curtailed and the problem dealt with at the initial stages,'' he said.

He said that in the mediation centres, apart from trained judicial officers, there would also be teams of mediators who would deal with and dispose of such cases at their own level.

To begin with, a team of 21 lawyers has been prepared and 40 more lawyers would be trained to deal with such cases in the mediation centres, Justice Grover said.

UNI JN JS1728